Canadian Aide Resigns Over Nightclub Visit

Canadian Defense Minister Robert Coates, named in a newspaper report as allegedly risking national security by visiting a West German nightclub known as a prostitute hangout, resigned from his Cabinet job Tuesday but denied any wrongdoing.

Coates, his voice breaking, told a hushed Parliament that the story in Tuesday’s Ottawa Citizen was “libelous to even suggest a breach of security.” Coates said he is planning a lawsuit against the paper.

Prime Minister Brian Mulroney accepted the resignation. He said he investigated reports of the nightclub incident when it was brought to his attention by “an appropriate government official,” whom he did not name. Mulroney said he has determined there was no breach of security.

Coates said he assured Mulroney “of my innocence and my conduct.” He added: “I also recognize the fundamental importance of my portfolio--one which is as sensitive as any in government. I am a man of honor who respects Parliament and I especially respect my prime minister. Accordingly, I have resigned as minister of national defense, effective today.”

The Ottawa Citizen said Coates and two aides visited a bar in Lahr, West Germany, in November after touring the nearby Canadian Forces base.

The newspaper said Coates spent about two hours drinking and chatting with a stripper, and the aides disappeared for some time with two women to another part of the nightclub.

An official quoted by the paper said that Coates, who has top-level North Atlantic Treaty Organization security clearance, was “under complete security” during his 14-hour visit to Lahr.

The newspaper quoted an unidentified former intelligence official as saying that visits to such clubs might leave “anyone open to blackmail no matter what he does.”

Coates, a 56-year-old lawyer from Amherst, Nova Scotia, has been in Parliament since 1957. He was appointed defense minister in September after Mulroney led the Progressive Conservatives to a landslide victory in national elections. He was considered one of the government’s most conservative ministers.